source: www.businessinsider.com - author: Judith Grey

Michael Bloomberg’s campaign to promote gun-control may not have swayed many votes in Congress last month, but the $12 million TV and video effort was enough to impress marketing executives at Walmart.

The national retailer which claims to serve 60% of American shoppers each week, hired Lighthouse Group, the Florida-based agency responsible for producing recent Mayors Against Illegal Gun spots, to contribute Walmart’s new multi-million dollar advertising campaign, Adage reports today.

The fact that the retail chain is the largest seller of guns in the country seems to be of no consequence to either the anti-gun agency or the gun-peddling discount department store. Walmart spokesperson David Tovar confirms that the Lighthouse Group will be retained on a project basis to collaborate on the brand’s latest television and digital ads.

Politics aside, the Lighthouse Group’s straightforward, real-people-speaking-to-camera approach that characterizes Bloomberg’s gun-control spots appears to be the direction that Walmart is pursuing for its new ”Real Walmart” campaign.

The three commercials launched so far show employees, shoppers and Walmart delivery personnel touting the retailer’s virtues in the earnest, no-frills style customarily associated with public advocacy campaigns.

Whether this stark approach – devoid of the seductive artistry consumers generally expect of large retail brands, like Target, H&M and Gap Inc – will work for Walmart, remains to be seen.